Aggie Feral Cat Alliance of Texas

What is a "feral"
cat?

A feral cat can be defined as any cat too wild or un-socialized
to be kept as a pet in a typical home. These cats are often born in
the wild. It is important to remember this because, if you try to
touch them, they may bite! Often these cats can be identified by a
notched ear. This painless surgical alteration shows that the
free-living cat has been spayed or neutered.

Have you seen feral cats on campus?

At Texas A&M University, colonies of feral or un-owned cats
live on campus property. While the exact numbers are not known, the
population is estimated to be in the hundreds. There are reports of
feral cats in multiple locations around campus, some examples
include: Kyle Field football stadium, the campus power plant,
Physical Plant parking lot, Sbisa Dining Center, Biological
Sciences Building East, around campus dormitories, and in and
around trash dumpsters.

Many of the feral cats at Texas A&M were originally owned
pets of students and neighbors of the university. These well
intentioned owners were probably not prepared for the many
responsibilities of pet ownership, including the cost of food and
supplies, veterinary care, and the time commitment. A growing feral
cat population is the result of generations of breeding among the
campus’ existing cat population.

Typically, cats are expected to have multiple litters of four to
eight kittens per year. Many of these cats are not socialized or
tame and can therefore not be placed in homes.

What is AFCAT?

The Aggie Feral Cat Alliance of Texas (AFCAT) is a volunteer
group of students, staff, and faculty from the TAMU campus. AFCAT's
main goal is to work closely with the university in order to
provide care and long-term management of feral cats on campus. In
addition, AFCAT tries to decrease one potential source of feral
cats - local strays - by providing educational information on the
costs and commitment of responsible pet ownership.

The AFCAT program is modeled after Stanford University’s highly
successful and humane effort to control and manage feral cat
populations on their campus. Initially, a small-scale version of
the AFCAT program was implemented at Texas A&M University’s
dairy barns. This trial was effective at controlling the feral cat
population and provided natural rodent management.

The AFCAT program has the following 5 key parts:

Community education regarding stray overpopulation and
responsibilities of pet ownership

Cats that are able to be socialized and tamed enter foster
homes and can then be adopted out to forever homes through a
careful screening process

Cats that are not able to be socialized and tamed are
re-released to be monitored and maintained at designated feeding
stations

AFCAT volunteers provide meals and observe these cats daily.
For this reason, we ask that you do not feed the cats.

How you can help:

If you have information about stray cats on campus or are
interested in becoming a campus cat feeder/caretaker, please
contact us. If you are interested in adopting an Aggie feral cat,
please email us for additional information.

Contacting AFCAT

New community partnership:

Due to the cooperation received from campus volunteers, senior
veterinary students, and a long list of supporters, the AFCAT
program has been largely successful in controlling the number of
cats on the A&M campus. However, the A&M campus is not the
only home to feral cat colonies. The success of AFCAT sparked the
interest of several Bryan/College Station community members who
recognized the need for a feral cat management program in the
Brazos County area. In order to promote the non-lethal control of
feral cat populations in the Bryan/College Station area, these
community members decided to form a similar organization called Brazos Feral Cat Allies.